AUBURN -- Auburn needed its usual fourth-quarter heroics to beat South Carolina in September, and, after studying the Gamecocks anew the past two days, defensive coordinator Ted Roof said the Tigers may need something more to beat the Gamecocks again in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday.

"The tape doesn't lie," Roof said.

Roof said South Carolina has improved since Auburn forced four fourth-quarter turnovers and rallied for a 35-27 win in what was quarterback Cam Newton's coming-out party in the fourth game of the season. Since then, the Gamecocks have relied more on tailback Marcus Lattimore, and quarterback Stephen Garcia has played better.

"This is a brand new team," said Auburn coach Gene Chizik.

But Auburn will have this year's results and history on its side in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on Saturday. The Tigers are a 5 1/2-point favorite, have a 12-0 record and moved back to No. 1 in the BCS standings on Sunday night.

South Carolina has a 9-3 record and is No. 19 in the BCS.

There have been five previous rematches in the SEC title game, and four of the times the same team won the regular-season and championship games. Auburn has been on the winning and losing side of that. The Tigers beat Tennessee twice in 2004. They lost to Florida twice in 2000.

The only time in SEC history the same team hasn't won both games was in 2001, when Tennessee beat LSU by eight in the regular season, then lost to the Bengal Tigers by 11 in the title game.

Roof said you can play a chess game, if you wish, countering what worked in the first meeting with surprises in the rematch.

"They're going to have answers for it, and we've got to make sure there is a nice balance between what we hang our hat on and some things that are maybe special or adaptable for this week," Roof said.

Chizik knows the balance. He was Auburn's defensive coordinator in 2004 when the undefeated Tigers beat Tennessee 34-10 in Knoxville with a dominating first half, then again 38-28 for the SEC championship.

But South Carolina coach Spurrier is no rookie at this rematch thing, either. He was swept by Alabama in 1999 and swept Auburn in 2000. And, after losing to Florida State in the regular season in 1996, he beat the Seminoles in a rematch for the national title.

So how's he looking at Auburn-South Carolina?

"It's just another game. I mean, it's another new game," Spurrier said.

Besides, who's kidding who after 12 games?

"Your game plan might be a little different, certainly," Spurrier said. "But, generally, we all do what we have to do to win games and go from there. You don't try to change much."

Chizik said not to expect for big changes by either team.

"You're not going to have wholehearted changes anywhere on your team because, obviously, you've been doing something good enough to get to the championship game," he said.

"When you haven't played anybody before, you have your best estimated guess of what you think is going to be their idea on how to attack you. This is a little different because you can really say, 'What was their ideas, and out of their ideas, what are they going to say was a good idea?'"

What was a really good idea for South Carolina on Sept. 25 was throwing the football to receiver Alshon Jeffery. He caught eight passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns. What wasn't a good idea was not freeing up Lattimore. The SEC's second-leading rusher had 14 carries for 33 yards.

What was a really good idea for Auburn was letting Newton run 25 times for 176 yards and three touchdowns and throw for two more TDs.

For Chizik, his worry remains the same.

"Our focus needs to be on ourselves and what we're not doing well and what we can improve on," he said.